A brief review of PhDs in creative and performing arts in Australia

This paper reports on an aspect of a pilot project conducted in 2003 by the authors comprising a bibliographic analysis of all (approximately 51,000) Australian PhDs. The pilot work is both a data and methodological basis for a larger project that investigates the nature and development of PhDs in Australia as they evolved in the context of national economic, social and educational changes. This paper reviews the evidence from the bibliographic data held in library catalogues of PhDs in each Australian university. After considering the definitional properties and their operationalisation, the paper provides an overview of the first instances, locations and frequencies of PhDs in the creative and performing arts in Australia, fields which are relatively new to doctoral study and which pose challenges in terms of doctoral pedagogy and scholarship. This is contextualised in terms of the development of the contemporary university sector during the 1990s, including the growth in the creative and performing arts therein.

An experimental investigation of pure voting power

We evaluate the accuracy of power indices by experimentally measuring the political power embodied in blocks of votes per se.  The experiment incorporates several players interacting in online chat rooms under supervision.  The chat rooms and the selection process reduce or eliminate extraneous political forces leaving logrolling as the primary political force.  Results show that two standard power indices reflect voting power while other power indices and proportionality do not.

The value of information in an agency model with moral hazard

I show that the principal and the agent may each prefer that the principal or the agent has imperfect information about the principal's technology in a principal-agent environment with moral hazard. Principals expend considerable resources on data cumulation and analysis. However, such investments in information acquisition are benecial only if the agent will know that the principal is not ignorant or it allows the principal to implement a dierent action. When the principal is perfectly informed about her technology, the agent prefers to be ignorant. In addition, the value of perfect information for the agency is negative if the principal would implement the same action with either possible technology. I also investigate the dierences between ex ante and ex post contracting, and the ramications of the principal being ignorant or potentially ignorant about the technology. Finally, I determine if the principal's utility varies continuously with the degree of informativeness of the agent about the principal's technology. In this vein, I determine whether the agent's uncertainty may make the principal better o if she has the less informative technology.

The orientation of Australian coursework-focussed marketing masters degree

Using content analysis, this paper examines the orientation of Australian coursework masters degrees in marketing by analysing data collected from 38 university websites on the entry requirements, degree structure and research opportunities of the programs. The findings indicate that there appears to be an attempt to offer programs aiming at a range of “outcomes”, i.e. training for PhD, advanced studies in marketing, or accreditation for those in the industry. The diverse orientation of the degrees offered means that Australian institutions are potentially facing a challenge, targeting programs at different market segments.

Masakhane: drumming up an effective music curriculum for pre-service teacher education

The introduction of African indigenous music to a generalist primary teacher education course transcended both cultural differences and personal inadequacies of students. It provided a cohesive bond for promoting the learning of music that is aptly represented by the African concept of masakhane (building together). This research demonstrated the effectiveness of Africa music for promoting cross-cultural music education, thereby providing a worthy model for implementation in other teacher education programs. According to findings from a questionnaire survey and interviews, students reported they were able to more effectively engage with, know, create, perform, teach and experience music through African rather than just the Western music. This experience provided students with new musical knowledge, understandings and skills as well as giving them insights into another musical tradition and culture. Students also perceived Indigenous African music as a source of motivation, interest and enjoyment, thereby promoting their creativity and musical learning. As global citizens, we need to embrace diversity and change not only in our immediate teaching contexts but also in broader educational policy. This curriculum clearly enhanced the effectiveness of music within a teacher education course and by extension has the potential to contribute to a greater professional and public good in education.

Innovation chains: possibilities and constraints for critical perspectives on computers, difference and educational innovation

While declarations of ‘innovativeness’ are easily found in most educational contexts, it is significantly more difficult to locate detailed definitions of what educational innovation actually means. In this paper we are interested in identifying the extent to which mainstream takes on ‘innovation’ (as played out in contemporary technology and equity debates) reflect or respond to what we will define as the more innovative dimensions of innovation literature itself. Our aim throughout this paper, then, is to begin the complex process of developing a means for distinguishing between projects that are ‘badged’ as innovative and projects that are more demonstrably (and sustainably) innovative. In this process we will distinguish between what Shiv Visvanathn describes as “innovation chains”— dynamic, rhizomatic, transformative responses to the contemporary world that lead to fundamentally new ways of conceptualising technology, culture and difference—and the constraints—or chains—provided by dominant understandings of innovation: chains which anchor us to existing, hegemonic and limiting understandings of student
diversity and educational technology.

Socratic teaching, the law and professional identity

This paper uses critical discourse analysis of interactions between law students and their lecturer to show how ‘Socratic’ teaching is used as a powerful technique to shape student identities. Data from a moot or simulated court in taxation law is analysed to show how students position themselves and are positioned as legal professionals. The paper argues that one student’s poor performance in the moot can be interpreted as resistance to attempts to influence her to adopt an uncongenial speaking position. This example supports the view that the difficulty law students have in learning to ‘think like a lawyer’ results not from a failure of skill but from the problems they have in assuming the speaking position of a legal professional. It is suggested that educators should consider helping students come to terms with the fragmented and contradictory subject positions associated with professionalisation.

Personal pedagogies and online teaching

This paper describes the rationale for and approach to research that is investigating the context, use and effects of a new teaching and learning online environment on the pedagogical practices of academics in a Faculty of Education in a traditional university setting. The use of online communication software is not new to the university. There is a history of use of a different suite of online communication software, but a new set of ‘tools’ was imposed in a top down model. Associated with this imposition was a requirement that all units in all courses make use of this software at least at a most basic level.

The positioning of practitioners in vocational education and training research

What is the status and role of research in VET reform? How are the views of practitioners positioned in VET research and reform? What access do VET practitioners have to research that empowers them to critique current policy and practice? This paper explores the sequestions drawing on literature and also on my experience as a VET practitioner and researcher. The national VET research strategy supports a substantial research effort to inform policy and practice. However, in a complex and unstable VET environment, funded research focuses on implementation, rather than critique, of current directions. I argue that the complexity of the VET system gives rise to new research problems, and that VET practitioners have knowledge and insight to offer in exploring these problems. But I question the extent to which current VET consultation and research processes incorporate the views of practitioners. I illustrate these issues by providing a brief overview of my PhD research project, currently being conducted through the Faculty of Education, Deakin University. This project explores the proposition that the language form typically used in official national VET texts is representative of, and constructive in, unequal power relationships.

Change happens: acceptance of 'impermanence' and 'flow' in teachers' professional reflections on technology and change

For several years the authors of this paper have monitored the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in primary and secondary schools. In this paper they report on their work in progress, focusing particularly on data collected via teacher interviews in 2003. It is a 'good news' story that celebrates a shift in the way school teachers approach ICT, and that shows that teachers are a lot more comfortable with ICT than the authors have previously observed. The authors argue that a significant transition has occurred in the hardware, software and 'warmware', the people and how they can work with the hardware and software as part of their pedagogy. Existing research tends to construct change as something that has to be planned, prepared for and managed (eg. Fullan, 1997), and as something that teachers often resist (eg. Cuban, 1993; Grunberg & Summers, 1992; Hodas, 1998). This paper is distinctive in drawing on Eastern approaches to understanding change. Through an examination of the concepts of "impermanence" and "flow," and how they apply to ICT, schools and teachers' work, we seek to demystify change: Change happens, has happened and will continue to happen. We conclude that teachers' increased familiarity with, and increasingly relaxed approach to, ICT has led to a shift in their attentions, such that they are less concerned with obtaining and mastering particular software and hardware, and more concerned with pedagogy and student learning.

Technological disadvantage of the digital age

Debates continue about the relative benefits, costs and risks of the diffusion of computer-based technologies throughout society and schooling. One area that has received considerable attention is gender equity. Early work on gender and computers focused on differences between male and female access and use (e.g. Huff, Fleming & Cooper, 1992; Kirkman, 1993; Morritt, 1997; Nelson & Cooper, 1997; Sofia, 1993), with concerns focused on the potential for girls to be disadvantaged. In some respects, it is arguable that problems of gender equity in schools with respect to computers have been overcome. For example, in a small study I conducted in two New Zealand senior primary classrooms in 2003, I found that both boys and girls were motivated to use computers and appeared to have equal opportunities to access computers in the classroom. The students in my study expressed a belief in the importance of using computers, and this belief can also be discerned from educational policy and media coverage.
In this paper I argue that, although gender by itself no longer appears to be a source of disadvantage in terms of access to and use of computers in schools, many questions about technology, schooling and power relations still remain unanswered. I present two alternative viewpoints on the new digital age. First, I explore Melanie Stewart Millar’s (1998) analysis of digital discourse as one which reproduces the power of white, middle-class, educated, well-paid males, and excludes anything else it considers ‘Other’. Second, I review arguments that the digital age has provided sites for the transcendence of traditional hierarchies and inequalities (e.g. Spender, 1995). I conclude that, despite the discrepancies between these two viewpoints, both concur that technological disadvantage will exacerbate any existing inequality that might result from intersections of identity categories, such as, gender, ethnicity, age, and socio-economic status.

Professional education and training for early career players in the Australian Football League: footy first, second and third

In this presentation we discuss some of the findings of a research project funded by the Australian Football League (AFL) titled: Getting the Balance Right: Professionalism, Performance, Prudentialism and Playstations in the Life of AFL Footballers. The research explored the following issues: the emergence and evolution of a ‘professional identity’ for AFL footballers – an identity that has many facets including the emerging ideas that a professional leads a balanced life, and has a prudent orientation to the future, to life after football. This ‘professional identity’ isn’t natural, and must be developed through a range of ‘professional development’ activities (a common link to all other ‘professions’). In the AFL at this time professional development has a focus on engaging players in a variety of education and training activities – TAFE & University courses, and workshops and seminars that the industry has put in place to educate players about issues that the industry sees as important.

The presentation will focus on our research with players we classified as Early Career players. For many of these 17 to 21 year old young men the later years of secondary schooling were compromised in their pursuit of an AFL career, and their subsequent drafting is followed by intense efforts to physically prepare them for football. In this context our research indicates that many Early Career players put football first, second and third – education and training, and industry expectations that they participate in this sort of professional development come further down their list of priorities.